INDIANAPOLIS (AFX) - Eli Lilly and Co said important facts were missing from a New York Times article published today which reported that the company has engaged in a decade-long effort to play down the health risks of Zyprexa, its best-selling medication for schizophrenia.
The newspaper said hundreds of internal Lilly e-mails and documents circulated among top management showed that Lilly hid important information from doctors about Zyprexa's links to obesity and its tendency to raise blood sugar, both known risk factors for diabetes.
Zyprexa is Lilly's best-selling product by far, with sales of 4.2 bln usd last year, when some 2 mln people worldwide took the medication.
Lilly, in a statement issued today, said numerous studies from government bodies such as the National Institute of Mental Health have not found that Zyprexa causes diabetes. It added that its labeling has always sought to warn physicians that 'potentially clinically-significant weight gain' was observed in more than half of all patients treated long-term with Zyprexa.
The paper said the documents were given to it by a lawyer representing mentally ill patients. Last year the company agreed to pay 750 mln usd to settle suits by 8,000 people who claimed they developed diabetes after taking the drug. Thousands more suits are pending.
Lilly said the leaked documents were a tiny fraction of the more than 11 mln pages of documents provided by Lilly as part of the litigation process, and do not accurately portray Lilly's conduct.
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